Emblems of Awareness Brain signatures lead scientists to the seat of consciousness
Humankind’s sharpest minds have figured out some of nature’s deepest secrets. Why the sun shines. How humans evolved from single-celled life. Why an apple falls to the ground. Humans have conceived and built giant telescopes that glimpse galaxies billions of light-years away and microscopes that illuminate the contours of a single atom. Yet the peculiar quality that enabled such flashes of scientific insight and grand achievements remains a mystery: consciousness.
Though in some ways deeply familiar, consciousness is at the same time foreign to those in its possession. Deciphering the cryptic machinations of the brain — and how they create a mind — poses one of the last great challenges facing the scientific world.
For a long time, the very question was considered to be in poor taste, acceptable for philosophical musing but outside the bounds of real science. Whispers of the C-word were met with scorn in polite scientific society.
Toward the end of the last century, though, sentiment shifted as some respectable scientists began saying the C-word out loud. Initially these discussions were tantalizing but hazy: Like kids parroting a dirty word without knowing what it means, scientists speculated on what consciousness is without any real data. After a while, though, researchers developed ways to turn their instruments inward to study the very thing that was doing the studying.
Today consciousness research has become a passion for many scientists, and not just for the thrill of saying a naughty word. A flood of data is sweeping brain scientists far beyond their intuitions, for the first time enabling meaningful evidence-based discussions about the nature of consciousness.
“You’re not condemned to walk around in this epistemological fog where it’s all just sort of philosophy and speculation,” says neuroscientist Christof Koch of Caltech and the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle. “It used to be the case, but now we can attack this question experimentally, using the tools of good old science to try to come to grips with it.
Role Of Thalamus - News
But the part the thalamus plays in consciousness is not straightforward. Its role may be as complex as the intricate spidery connections linking it to the rest of the brain. BRAIN JOLTIn a recent study, a team injected a signal (cross) into the brain
what role epigenetic variation may play in adaptation. Results: In Red Junglefowl, ancestor of domestic chickens, gene expression and methylation profiles in thalamus/hypothalamus differed substantially from that of a domesticated egg laying breed.
However, it is the thalamus that determines where the information should be sent. If the incoming information is threatening, negative emotions are attached to the learning process and instantly sent to the amygdala, which prepares the body for a
The mPFC, PCC and thalamus are thought to act as 'connector hubs' that have a pivotal role in co-ordinating the flow of information through the brain 2 , and the researchers say that this accounts for the effects of hallucinogens, which induce a state
Normally, this region filters sensory inputs before passing them along to the thalamus and outer brain regions. In migraine sufferers, nerve signals pour unfettered into the rest of the brain.head: slowgogo/istockphoto; brain: takito/shutterstock Study